YAY! After thinning out banana suckers and composting, two trees promise bananas.

We’re trellising some thorny plants along the fence to deter fence-climbing.

Pedestrians from many cultures stop to ask about plants and talk about the gardens they have or used to have in their native countries. Along the fence I like to plant crops – like these peas – plus herbs and flowers that they can harvest from the sidewalk.

In the courtyard

Newly mulched path will help to conserve moisture – make the effects of this rain last longer – and eventually break down to feed the soil.

Draught tolerant plants added to “small fruit” garden. Experimenting with clover as a living mulch

I was honored and delighted to have a personal meeting with the Mayor this week. The Mayor goes way back with LAEV to before he became our Councilman, and we only owned one property instead of four. So it’s always a delight to see how far both he and LAEV have come in the past dozen years or so. I asked if we could take a photo, so I could have bragging rights when he’s our President some day.

Here a few of the topics we got to talk about, each of which the Mayor was supportive of. Still a ways to go on advocacy work. But with the help of the “less cars” folks, the permaculture folks, Teresa Baker and her LATCH Collective, Hans Johnson leading the Styrofoam ban, and LAUSD Superintendent Michelle King, and, of course, the passionate folks who live in/at the Los Angeles Eco-Village, it’s all within reach!

Return the original intent of AB 744 for car-free affordable housing

Mayor Garcetti and Lois

developments near transit. The City watered this bill down so that developers couldn’t go less than 0.5 spaces per unit. LAEV could demonstrate this for our future developments.

succulent garden : samantha researched plants that might be suitable for the dry area next to loquat tree in front and possibly in the bulb-out raised bed. Contestants were: yucca, ornamental grass, indian mallow. we choose mallow which is perennial, blooms year round and has orange flowers. as a member of mallow family, may also be medicinal. samantha will check for sources.

transplant goji berry from sandbox dani and yolanda located a good site for the goji berry & dug & prepared a hole for it’s new digs. Unfortunately, the goji berry had been cut down, but it’s roots were still in the sandbox, so they have been re-located to the bed with banana & papaya trees fed by greywater.

After party sweet & juicy pomegranates from our pruning, and cold, sweet watermelon brought by bambi were our rewards while we chatted in the courtyard after working. Many of us went from there to sea dragon for supper & more lively conversations.

I know there’s 5 more days until the new moon, but it’s really raining today, so i plugged some sweet peas & austrian field peas in the ground. (probably should NOT have soaked them overnight, but when rain is predicted here, the drops can usually be counted, so i hope pre-soaking wasn’t overkill for today’s conditions. ) Will keep you posted in 2-4 weeks.

all from a plot that gets no direct sun between Nov to Feb! I harvested about 15 lbs of sweet potatoes from 3 plants. I’m amazed that they grow in the shade and seem to mature in cool temperatures. They don’t seem to need much water.

Their flowers were blooming Oct – Dec.

Check out the personality of this 4 pounder! You can see that gramma is happy about it too!

Even though I do this several times a week, setting the conditions for kitchen waste to become fertile soil is still the most amazing transformation.

Jonas finishes this compost pit with a layer of soil.

We planted nightshades: tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos here last year, and it was cover-cropped with clover during the winter. After another round of cover crops, how about some corn? Will we get enough light? Not the best exposure, but let’s experiment

compost cover-cropped with flax & buckwheat

Now that I think about growing corn, i think i’ll toss in some lentils to boast the nitrogen in this cover-crop mix. I’m using “seeds” that we stock in the food lobby bulk room.